FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                        RELEASE NO. 80-09

NEW COMMANDANT ANNOUNCED – Sept. 22, 2009

WEST POINT, N.Y. – Brig. Gen. William E. Rapp has been selected as the 72nd Commandant of Cadets at the U.S. Military Academy.  He will replace Brig. Gen. Michael S. Linnington.

Brig. Gen. Linnington will depart West Point on Thursday for an assignment in Afghanistan.

Rapp, a native of Dumont, Colo., is a 1984 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and holds a Master and Doctorate in Political Science from Stanford University as well as a Master of National Security Policy from the U.S. Army War College.  He is a licensed Professional Engineer in Virginia.  Rapp has served in a wide variety of challenging command and staff positions including; a Fellow for the Council of Foreign Relations, Institute for International Policy Studies in Tokyo, Japan; Commander of the 54th Engineer Battalion in Bamberg, Germany; and on the faculty of West Point, as an instructor of International Relations for the Department of Social Sciences. 

He is currently serving as the Commander, Northwestern Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Portland, Ore., and is scheduled to assume command Nov. 23.

About West Point
Ranked the “Top College in the Country” by Forbes and “Top Public Liberal Arts College” by US News & World Report, the U.S. Military Academy is a four-year co-educational federal undergraduate liberal arts college located 50 miles north of New York City. The world's preeminent leader development institution, it was founded in 1802 as America's first college of engineering.  Its mission remains constant—to educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the Nation as an officer in the United States Army.  For more information, go to www.westpoint.edu.

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